In this chapter, you’ll build the Welcome app, a simple app that displays a welcome message and two images — without writing any code — using the Eclipse IDE with the ADT (Android Development Tools) Plugin.

Build a simple Android app and execute it on an Android Virtual Device (AVD).

Outline

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Technologies Overview

3.3 Eclipse IDE

3.4 Creating a New Project

3.5 Building the Welcome App’s GUI with the ADT’s Visual Layout Editor

3.6 Examining the main.xml File

3.7 Running the Welcome App

3.8 Wrap-Up

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter, you’ll build the Welcome app—a simple app that displays a welcome message and two images—without writing any code. You’ll use the Eclipse IDE with the ADT (Android Development Tools) Plugin—the most popular tools for creating and testing Android apps. We’ll overview Eclipse and show you how to create a simple Android app (Fig. 3.1) using the ADT’s Visual Layout Editor, which allows you to build GUIs using drag-and-drop techniques. Finally, you’ll execute your app on an Android Virtual Device (AVD).